Archive for the ‘EVE Online’ Category

I haven’t been playing EVE Online for long. I only signed up to the 14 day trial last week and I’m still getting to grips with the game and it’s hugely complex OS like interface. I’m currently still spending a third of my time deciding on what do to and two thirds figuring out how to do it. I don’t mind the learning curve though because it was to be expected and I’m actually enjoying knowing that there’s so much to explore. One of things that definitely appeals to me about EVE is the full-on sandbox virtual world that it offers and knowing how vast and limitless it is.

Although it may be old news to long term EVE players, a colleague of mine found a fascinating article on the BBC news site posted today. Apparently, a few weeks ago, billions of ISK were stolen from a player run bank called EBANK and sold on for £3,115/$5,086. My first reaction was “damn, that’s so cool!” and my second reaction was “I didn’t know there were player run banks in EVE”. Guess we learn something new every day.

Unfortunately it wasn’t some exciting armed break-in into a heavily fortified vault (cue blazing gunfight) or anything like that. Turns out it the chief executive, Ricdic, just withdrew it on the sly and the then traded it for real money which he used to pay off some medical bills and put down a deposit on a house. His account was then banned by CCP. Still, he’s several thousand dollars better off and, presumably, people with savings in the bank have been screwed over.

This is a prime example of the lack of consequences in virtual worlds and how it enables people to go beyond their moral code. I highly doubt that Ricdic would’ve ripped someone off for $5k in real life and, even if he had, gotten away with it scott free. The bottom line here is that he essentially made money at the expense of others – stole from them – yet there was absolutely nothing that could be done to him in return.

It makes me wonder a lot about where the line between real and virtual worlds is drawn and to what length developers should go to enforce rules and regulations. I find it very curious (and almost a little hypocritical) that CCP have a policy of non-interference with their game world yet still banned Ricdic, not for stealing the ISK, but for selling it on. I wonder why they decided that particular act warranted banning and not any other.

Anyway, I better log back into EVE and finish figuring out how to play it. I’ve got to embark to on my master plan to impersonate a 16 year old female cheerleader called ‘Sparkle’, cozy up to the leader of some mega-corporation, eventually earn his trust and then stab him in the back and steal all of his cash. I’ve got a upcoming holiday to pay off, don’t cha know.

When I was in primary school the first girl I ever liked was called Eve. I used to stay late just so I could work on a geography project with her. All of this is totally irrelevant but provides a nice human interest introduction to my adventures with EVE Online.

I’ve been hearing all sorts of good stuff about this game. People say that it rewards the casual gamer (which I would count myself as), others say it has depth that no other MMO can touch, still others have called it boring. Who is right? Over the next couple of weeks I will sample the game and see what all the commotion is about for myself.

EVE Online is a space-based MMO – like a mix of Elite, Mass Effect and X-wing. You have no avatar in the traditional sense but you do have a splendid spaceship to begin with.

I downloaded the client and installed. The client comes in two types; original-graphics and new-graphics. I went for the new graphics. The first problem I had was launching the installer, I run vista-64 and found there to be a 5minute delay between double-clicking on the setup button and the program actually launching (by which point I had four different copies running – not so good).

The game loads with an intro movie that has a lot of in-game spaceship models flying around and the occasional still head-shot of a sexy alien or sour-faced fascist mixed in. It’s fine, it introduces the universe very effectively and you get a real sense of back-story.

So, once it loads it’s a very easy set-up and you go straight into character creation. I should say here I didn’t find any way of selecting a server but maybe I’m just being backwards. The character creation is pretty standard, choose race, class, specialisation etc… You do create a face for your character but this is fairly pointless as no-one except you will ever see it, all other players will ever see is your ship (there is talk of an expansion where your avatar would walk around space stations but that’s all just talk for now).

The game launches and we go straight into tutorials. The game is based on the old “get quest from X, fetch Y or destroy Y, then return to X” formula so the tutorials just teach you where everything on the screen is and how to pilot your ship.

There’s no ‘WASD’ here, you chose a destination (or target) and select a speed with a slider or drop-down menu. This separates you from the game a little and loses the sense of immediacy you get when running through Outland dodging mobs.

The screen is fairly cluttered with windows popping up over other windows and obscuring your view. This isn’t so great as the tutorial will ask you to click on something which you only find after clearing away four different windows.

The first quest-giver is an ‘agent’ lurking inside a space-station. I docked with the station and found myself staring at the inside of a hanger while more windows popped up. The conversation is all with a small portrait of the agent and again I started wishing I could just run up to someone hanging out in some kind of ’space-cantina’ and ask them for missions. The way that EVE works is fine but I want to feel more involved and a sense of setting and place REALLY helps with that.

Anyway, thats my initial thoughts. I’ll keep updating as I progress through the game and even go on my first mission. I’d really like to hear other people’s experiences with the game or suggestions for things I’m missing.

Who am I?

Gordon was born on the mean-streets of suburban Holland and learned to fist fight without remorse in steel cage matches at an early age. He now lives in Edinburgh with his wife and their imaginary Nigerian bodyguard, Mr Itunu.